A Life Like Other People's (Hardcover)

7th September 2009

Alan Bennettâ€™s poignant memoir recounts the marriage of his parents, the lives and deaths of his aunts and the uncovering of a long-held secret.

First published in the acclaimed collection Untold Stories, this tender, intimate family portrait beautifully captures the minutiae of the Bennettsâ€™ domestic life: their disappointments and pleasures, tragedies and successes, and underlying it all, their suspicion that they were somehow different to and lesser than other people.

With warmth, candour and sadness, Bennett writes of his parentsâ€™ slow shuffle towards old age. From their understated early morning wedding, to his motherâ€™s mental illness and their unceasing concern and support for each other, A Life Like Other Peopleâ€™s is at once heart-rending and life-affirming, engaging, intelligent and funny. It is Alan Bennett at his best: a work of art that confirms his status as one of Britainâ€™s greatest writers.